Zombie Limbo

Just a quick update on things. Regarding the Zombie Sensor; I have a lot of the parts to make more units, except for the speaker. The piezo speaker had been on backorder from Mouser for several months now. I've been trying to find a replacement, with no luck. The original part can be found HERE.

All of the replacement candidates tested are not as loud as the original part. The design of the original part is a bit different - and the video below shows what I'm up against. 

If anyone has ideas on ways to solve this, please email me at "rwb134" using Google's fine e-mail service. I really want to get more of these made, especially so I can have them ready in time for TagFest 2015 this year.  Keep your fingers crossed.

The Future

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their excitement and enthusiasm for the projects Dustin and I have been working on. The Zombie Sensor, NOMAD and the Echo Base are all projects we're committed to and extremely excited about.

Unfortunately the processor we have been working with, the Atmel ATmega328u (the one used in the popular Arduino Uno series) just doesn't have the horsepower and specs we need. The vision we have for everything is bigger than what this processor can handle.

Updating

Back from TagFest 2014 this year and it was awesome! We were at a new location this year that did not disappoint. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a TagFest, you need to do so at least once in your life. We played so many games, both conventional and unconventional -  some involving a golf cart to act as a tank and other great night games called "THING", "WEREWOLVES", and of course "ZOMBIES"!

SALE OPPORTUNITY!

At TagFest 2014 this year, we'll be making, for the first time, some of our products available for sale!

First up is the new Zombie Sensor MKII! I'll have about 50 of these and can be purchase for $15 each.  These sensors can be operated in three modes and can accept tags from LTTO, LTX and LTAR while rejecting beacon noise. Mega Tags does multiple points worth of damage, depending on the mode you're playing. We will be play testing these at night, so if you're in the area, come by and check them out!

We will also be selling prototypes of the long awaited NOMAD MKII this year! The NOMAD is a portable, hand-held hosting unit for LTTO/LTX & LTAR games. These will be fully functional units but they are still prototypes since we are still putting the final touches on the final case design/engineering. The NOMAD prototypes will be on sale for the special TagFest price of $100. However we will only have about 5 of them on hand. The final product, when they are ready, will be sold for $175.  Users who get the prototype and want to upgrade them to the final case design will have this option. The cost for this upgrade has yet to be determined.

All items will ONLY be sold to TagFest participants.

LTAR and LTTO are Friends!

I made a discovery today that if you host LTAR guns with the NOMAD in the LTAR-only mode (this will allow you to make any LTAR-only attribute changes you wish, such as no beacons, auto reload, receive ammo and/or shields) IT CAN interact with LTTO normal hosted games!  Meaning the LTAR and the LTTO gear will each receive tags from each other! This opens the door up to even more great customizable games.  This video demonstrates how it works.

NOMAD MARK II

I know this blog has been quiet, but I have been VERY busy working out the kinks on the latest Zombie sensor AND the new NOMAD MkII. And I must say for the NOMAD, this little device is simply AMAZING! I can't wait to show it off to you all.

What is the NOMAD? It's a portable, hand-held device that can be used for hosting LTTO, LTX and LTAR games without needing to be attached to a computer.  It does hosting and a ton of extra features crammed into a tiny unit.  Think of it as the Lazer Tag GameMaster's Swiss Army Knife. Yes, it's been a long wait, but trust me, it will be worth it.

PROJECT UPDATES

Even thought it's been quite here on my blog, I've been busily working on updating all of my projects
- which has been actually pretty intense. So I'd thought I'd take a quick timeout from coding on the Arduino to bring everyone up to speed.

ZOMBIE SENSOR - This project has been known as the FERAL IR SENSOR - it will get a formal name change soon.  Last summer the "Mark I" version was used extensively at TagFest. I've been working on some updates to help improve upon the "Mark I" and it's looking really nice. I'll be making an announcement soon about this, along with a video to show off what's different.

Back To Reality

TagFest was an absolute blast. The Feral IR Sensor was a huge hit. The picture above is us using the sensors for one of our many night Zombie games which worked really well.

TagFest or Bust

We've been busy getting our devices ready for TagFest which starts on July 19th in Eugene Oregon. At the event we'll be demoing all three gadgets, the Echo Base, Feral IR Sensor and the Nomad.

The Echo Base microcontroller is giving me troubles - I'm hoping to have this fixed in time. I'm looking forward to the interesting games these devices will give us.

The Feral IR Sensors are running perfectly. I'll have 30 units on hand for us to play test and perhaps even sell at the event.  Very much looking forward using these at night for those dark Zombie games!

And the NOMAD, portable hosting station, will also be making it's first public appearance. The picture here is the current design. I'll hopefully have time to take pictures. Look for updates after the event. Exciting stuff!  

Nomad Prototype

Good news everyone! We now have a working prototype of the Nomad! The Nomad will be a handheld portable Lazer Tag hosting station. No need to be tethered to a computer to make it work. With the Nomad you can create fully customizable games where any team, or even any player, can be assigned different game attributes!  Check out the video demo. 

Nomad Screen Demo

While we're waiting for PCB boards to be finalized for my other projects (Feral IR Sensor & Echo Base) I've been making progress on the screen for my next new project, a portable hosting station called the NOMAD!  Check out the video below.  Making progress one small step at a time.  Still a lot of work to do.

Preview

Testing out something new. 

Details to come soon.